The clarion., 1887-10-12

y
and with hands that many years ago
turned to dust, soothed away your pain
and with voice that you viii never hear
again, unless You join her in the better
country, told you to never mind. for you
would feel better by and by, and by that
dying couch, where she looked so pale
and talked so slowly, catching her breath
between the words, and you felt an aw-
ful loneliness coming over your soul; by
all that, beg you to come back and take
the same religion 1t was good enough
for her. 1t is good enough for you. Nay,
have better plea thar that. / plead
by all the wounds and tears and blood
and groans and agonies and death throes
of the Son of God, who approaches you
this moment with torn brow and lacerated
hand, and whipped back, and saying:
Come unto me, all We who are weary
and heavy laden, and / viii give you
rest
Again, there is a field of usefulness but
little touched occupied by those who are
astray in their habits. All northern ma
tions, like those of North America and
England and Scotland-that is, in the
colder climates-are devastated by alco-
hohsn. They take the fire to keep up the
Alu III ARA
bia and Spain, the blood is so they are not
tempted to fiery liquids. The great Roman
armies never drank anything stronger
than water tinged with vinegar, but under
our northern climate the temptation to
heating stinulants is most mighty and
millions succunb. When man s habits
go wrong the church drops him, the social
circle drops him, good influences drop
him, we all drop him. OF all the men
who get off track but few ever get on
again. Near my summer residence there
is life saving station on the beach. There
are all the ropes and rockets, the boats,
the machinery for getting people off ship
wrecks. Summer before last | saw there
fifteen or twenty men who were break
fasting after having just escaped with
their lives and nothing more. Up and
down our coasts are built these useful
structures, and the mariners know it and
they feel that if they are driven into the
breakers there viii be apt from shore to
come a rescue. The churches of God
ought to be so marv life saving stations,
not SO much TO LIP those who are Id
smooth waters but those who have been
shipwrecked. Come, let us run out the
lifeboatsi And who will man them? We
do not apreach enough to such men;
we have not enough faith in their re-
lease. Alasl if when they come to hear
us we are laboriously trying to show the
difference between sublapsarianis1n and
supralapsarianism, while they have a
thousand vipers of remorse and despair
coiling around and biting their immortal
spirits. The church is not chiefly for
goodish sort of men whose proclivities are
all right and who could get to heaven
praying and singing in their own homes.
1t is on the beach to help the drowning.
Those bad cases are the cases that God
likes to take hold of. He can save a big
sinner as well as a small sinner, and
when a man calls earnestly to God for
help he will go out to deliver such one.
If it were necessary God would come
down from the sky, followed by all the
artillery of heaven and a million angels
with drawn swords. Get 100 such re-
deemed men in each of your churches,
and nothing could stand before them, for
such men are generally warm hearted
and enthusiastic. No formal prayers
then. No heartless singing then. No
cold conventionalisms then.
Furthermore, the destitute children of
the street offer a field of work compare
lively unoccupied. The uncared for
children are in the majority in Brooklyn
and most of our cities. When they grow
up, if unreformed, they will outvote
your children, and they will govern your
children. The whisky ring will hatch
out other whisky rings, and grog shops
will kill with their horrid stencil public
sobrlety, unless the church of God rises
up with outstretched arms and enfolds
this dying population In her bosom. Pub
lie schools cannot do it. Art galleries
cannot do it. Blackwell's Island cannot
do it. Almshouses cannot do it. New
York Tombs and Raymond Street jail can
not do it. Sing Sing cannot do it.
Church of God, wake up to your magnifi-
cent mission You can do it. Get
somewhere, somehow to work.
The Prussian cavalry mount by putting
their right foot into the stirrup, while the
American cavalry mount by putting their
left foot into the stirrup. l don't care
how you mount your war charger, if
you only get into this battle for God and
get there soon, right stirrup, or left STIR
rup, or nc stirrup at all. The unoccupied
fields are all around us, and why should
we build on another mans foundation?
That God has called this church to especial
work no one can doubt. Its history has
been miraculous. God has helped us at
every step, and though the wheels of its
history have made many revolutions
they have all been forward. and never
backward, and now with our borders en-
larged and with important reinforce
ments, we start on new campaign. At
Sharon Springs, nineteen years ago, while
IN the park, / asked God if he had any
particular work for me to do, to make it
plain and would do it. He revealed to
me the style of church we were to have,
and he revealed to me the architecture,
and he revealed to me the modes of wor-
ship, and He revealed to me nv work,
and as far as In my ignorance and weak
ness have seen the right way have tried
to walk In it. We decide that we wanted
1t soul saving church, and it has been
almost a constant outpouring of the Holy
Ghost. Ye powers of darkness, We devils |
IN hell, we mean to snatch from your do |
minion other multitudes, if God will help |
u.s. have heard of what was called the |
LAUNDERING legion" 1t was in 179 |
part of the Roman army to which some
Christians belonged, and their PRAYERS. it |
was said, were answered by thunder
and lightning and hail and tenn
pest, which overthrew an invad-
ing army and saved the empire.
And would to God that this church
may be SO mighty in prayer and work |
that it would become laundering legion
before which the forces of sin might be |
routed, and the gates of hell might trem-
bic. Now that the autumn has come.
and the Gospel ship has been repaired |
and enlarged, it is time to launch her for |
another voyage. Heave away now, lads! |
Shake out the. reefs in the foretopsail, |
Come, 0 heavenly wind. and fill the can
vas! Jesus aboard will assure our safety.
Jesus on the sea will beckon us forward. |
Jesus on the shining shore will welcome |
us into hartor. ''And so it came to pass |
that they all escaped safe to land"
Fragments of the Monument.
An effort is on foot to secure the arrest |
OF the bogus guides who sell fragments |
of marble at the Washington monument |
grounds TO innocent strangers at from so |
Re - t. Ill A Il